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30 May, 2012

This here is little Furgus. I love dragons, they're so freakin' cute. This is obviously a birthday card for a young boy, but I don't happen to know any young boys. Mostly it was just fun to colour. And I'm entering it in the Make it Colourful Kraft challenge, cos it fits and all. I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos to colour him because the effect of pencils on Kraft is just so fun. Still not so sure about this combination of blues. I keep making the same mistake with it and yet I'm not learning. ((sigh))

The second I saw Guitar Kody from Some Odd Girl Stamps I thought of Mike. He's been learning the guitar for a while now and Kody here is dressed a lot like Mike does. So I put him in plain jeans and a plain tee (usually what Mike wears) and copied his guitar as well. I used some more of the Vintage T line from WRMK, stamps and stickers from that line. The buttons and the brad is from MME.

28 May, 2012

I made this card for my dad for Father's Day. The Kraft challenge at Make it Colourful was the inspiration, of course, but I thought it would make for a more "manly" looking card. Simple, clean, effective, and featuring my colouring. My dad has expressed that he really appreciates the effort I put into these coloured cards so I wanted it to be *perfect* for him. I used the Vintage T papers from WRMK and brads from MME. I used a Greeting Farm Ian stamp that unfortunately I cannot find a link for, sorry. But I thought he was adorable and uncomplicated for an uncomplicated man like my father. I hope you *and* my father like my little card. Thanks for looking!

(All pictures are clickable for a larger image, in case you want a closer peek at anything. )

It's been six month since I did any work on my scrap desk and honestly, I've been pretty frustrated with it. I'm frustrated with our living situation in general, but I didn't like how small my space was. I was forever hitting my arm on the edge of the closet! And of course swearing like a sailor when I did it. Add to that the plastic drawers were falling apart, there was crap in them I didn't use, and I couldn't get hold of things I DID use when I needed to!

No, something needed to be done. On May 25th I woke up with the idea to take the desk apart, use just the top of it, and use Jetmax cubes instead as the supports. Unfortunately I only had THREE Jetmax cubes, so I had to use Iris holders as the supports. Thankfully they were just a 1/2" higher than the Jetmax cubes would be. If you don't know, I live in a rural mountain town that doesn't much allow for just jetting off to Michael's whenever you want. I'd have to wait until we travelled down the hill on Saturday to get the next cubes.

This was the result. I got to scrap in this space the whole day and I found I really liked it. I realized quickly that I'd need different Jetmax cubes though. One with four square drawers, and another with three pull out drawers. The cube on the bottom left would not work for my space anymore and has been relegated to the kitchen. The two cubes on the right would need to be put on the left as their supplies wouldn't be needed as much as the stuff that had been in the plastic drawers before.

Saturday, May 26th, we went down the hill, enjoyed a movie, and did our shopping. When we got home we sat down and put together the two cubes on the right. I then took apart and put my desk back together. I cleaned *everything* completely, vacuuming once again too. I moved my paper cart to the left because I figured it would not only add more space for the drawers, but it would make for less of a "footprint".

The top of my desk hasn't changed much at all. I added SMASH books, and a pants hanger for my washi "collection".

Moving my light to the left side of my desk wasn't something I really wanted to do, but since it's now more "vacant" over there, and since the top drawer on the right wouldn't be able to open with the lamp holder sitting there, I didn't see as I had much choice. So far it's not been in the way though, so it's okay. My stamp shelves holding their envelopes remain as useful as ever.

And the right side of my desk. It's quite colourful with all my stickles, my ribbon, and my buttons.

Here's the new drawer cube. They hold 4x6 photos perfectly, which I LOVE. The next is full of my dewdrop inks and their various applicators. On the bottom is my Greeting Farm stamp collection (and a few Some Odd Girl stamps waiting for a home). And then my Spellbinders dies as well as my Cuttlebug folders so they're right at hand when I'm ready to use them.

These are my favourite drawers. The top holds all my most used tools. I really like this as it's easy to grab what I need and then put it right back in that top drawer. Right beneath that is all my general embellishments. Flowers, brads, multicoloured ribbon, Jolee's stickers, that kind of thing. Below that is my Halloween and Christmas themed embellishments as well as my specialized adhesive like pop dots and really sticky tape.

This here's my paper cart. It went through some big transformations cos I got rid of two paper holders full of paper by USING it. A big accomplishment. Most of my Basic Grey is gone too, so I'll be getting rid of that soon I'm sure. I'm starting to think buying all that cardstock was a bad idea. Two paper holders full?! Ugh! Anyway, I'm down for using up all the paper on this cart quickly cos I don't like when things linger. I've also got on there my supply SMASH book, full of Copic combos and supply lists. And I've got my little tote with my Cricut carts and booklets. I haven't opened that in... oh, nearly a year now? Need to get to that!

This is the top cube on the left side of my desk. It has a selection of wood mounted stamps, most from Stampscapes all organized in the drawers and my sort of "overflow" inks and my embossing powders. I don't use them that often so it's not a big deal if I have to crawl under my desk to get them. I've also got my coloured pencil set, my Copic paper, my Kraft paper, and my Cricut mats up there in the paper holders.

The drawers here on the last cube hold bigger tools, my embossing gun, my tiny attacher, my glue gun, and then the bottom has an assortment of mini albums. For someone who doesn't like mini albums I sure have a lot of them!

So, that's it! My brand new scrapbook closet! I LOVE it, just so you know. I'm really liking the organization of it all and the cleanliness of it. I hope you like it too!

27 May, 2012

I've done a page like this for the last few years. Made a collection of all the movie tickets that we collect in a year. We don't go to that many movies, but it's cool to look back at what we *do* go to see. I always title it "At the Movies" too, and imagine my happiness when At the Movies Jude comes out at Simply B Stamps! He's PERFECT for this year's page. Since he was released just today I had to go right out and buy him, colouring him up as quickly as I could so I could complete my page. Now all it's waiting for is more ticket stubs!

Here's a close up for you. I coloured the 3D glasses dark, cos modern glasses are just fancy sun glasses now. But I made sure to colour one lens going one direction, and one going the other, as that's how modern 3D works. Mike will actually take both our glasses and put them together, watching the polarization change as he moves them. He's silly like that. ((laughs)) I gave Jude and Icee too, since that's all I'll drink at the movies, Coke pls!

25 May, 2012

I made a lot of cards!!! Rio cards, specifically; I knew I wanted to create little tiny scenes with them. Each of these is 4.25x4.25 and all but the Little Shop of Horrors one has a Make it Crafty background. The "Audrey 2" digi stamp is actually a freebie.

I hope you like my cards. I've been very busy this week and I even just re-did my scrap area. Stay tuned for Wednesday when I reveal it! Thanks for looking everyone!

22 May, 2012

I used Victorian Summer Rio first, and then Summer Rio from Simply B Stamps to make these little cards. I like them cos they're bright and I'm way into the brightness right now. For Victorian Summer Rio I used a Make it Crafty background and for Summer Rio I just used a freebie I found as I wanted to keep it really simple so the image could stand out. I used MME and Dear Lizzy papers for these cards. I also made Victorian Summer Rio for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge this week. I thought it was perfect for her. I'm also entering Summer Rio into the anything goes challenge at Whimsy Stamps.

17 May, 2012

Hey there! Today I'm entering Mojo Monday's sketch challenge with Water Balloon London from Simply B Stamps. I wanted to keep it simple, but summery, so I coloured her with calming blues. I used WRMK Cottontail papers for this, which goes to show you don't always need to stay with the theme of a paper collection. I tried something new with her hair, and failed miserably, but I think it's important to show my failures as well as my successes here. I hope you like my card. It's a nice and simple sketch which really fits my style.

14 May, 2012

I made this card for Mike using two of the Toxic Teens from Simply B Stamps. I tried something a little different with the colouring, going for irregular shading instead of the traditional way I colour stuff. It was supposed to be faster, but not really. I coloured them to look at Mike and I, cos we're so opposite and all. I used Jillibean Soup papers and then I put a little note for him on the back. He's going to take this to work.

13 May, 2012

I made this card for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge with Water Fun Rio from Simply B Stamps as the focal point. I'm really liking doing these sort of "portrait" versions of stamps and you can only do it with the digis, which has really got me addicted to my printer, hehe. I used Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper for this because I wanted to stick to a few simple colours to highlight the image and still keep a light and fun attitude about it. I hope you like my card!

10 May, 2012

I made this here boy card this morning. It's sorta based on a quote from Neil Patrick Harris. He said "whenever I feel sad, I stop being sad and start being awesome instead" and I thought that was cute. This idea came into mind the second I saw the Toxic Teens line from Simply B Stamps. I don't know how I missed it, but I'm glad I got them now! There's also a rainbow challenge going on at Make it Colourful and this, though I didn't plan it that way, came out quite rainbow-y. I was just basing the colours of one image on the eye colour of the previous person. A strange way to colour things, but there you go! I coloured this with my Faber-Castell Polychromo pencils, just... well, just cos I hadn't used them in a while!

08 May, 2012

For this card I used Nurse Betty from Simply B Stamps to make Mike's mom a Mother's Day card. He always springs these things on me at the last moment, so I didn't get to do much planning, but I think it came out okay... I guess.

This card was just for fun. I'm feeling bright and summery after all and what's better than combining this Bikini Betty stamp with twostamps from Make it Crafty? So fun! This one I'm actually proud of, came out like I wanted it to, hehe.

National Scrapbook Day was also the day of the San Diego Scrapbook Expo. I got a TON of good deals at the Anaheim expo and I used almost all of what I got in the short time between the end of February and the beginning of May. SO, Mike agreed to take me to the San Deigo Expo. I was really excited because some of the booth's that I'd enjoyed and dropped big bucks at in Anaheim were going to be present in San Diego and I could stock up again. Plus I could get some random little things that I don't really like having to order off the internet.

But I was a bit disappointed. The stores that were fabulous in Anaheim just didn't "bring it" in San Diego. They had less inventory and the things I was hoping to re-buy or stock up on just weren't there. I did manage to get some good deals. Mike helped me out at the Prima booth, holding and counting my packages so I could get the best deal. I'd forgotten my wallet too, so he was "payment man". He was really good though, quietly following behind me, typing on my phone, as I searched through the booths I was interested in for goodies.

This is everything I got, spread out on our bed as I did before, hehe. I took advantage of the new CHA releases being present to snag some more MME Follow Your Heart papers and embellishments because I'd been using them so much. I also got some of the Queen & Co. washi, cos it's pretty and it's nice to be able to use a ton of something on a project without worrying about using it all up. Mostly what I picked up though was flowers. I've been using a lot of them lately, finding them fun, so I'm just going with it. I find I like these packages better than the whole "bottle of flowers you'll never use up" because, well, the likelihood that you'll use them up is higher. As I said, I used up all the package I bought at the Anaheim Expo, so I needed more. I *did* get two bottles, but they're various colours in the one bottle, and pure white in the other, easy to colour with my Copics to suit my project.

I also got this really cool little tin of embellishments. One place had a lot of bins that you could pick and choose what kind of bling and bits you wanted. I filled a $4 tin to the bursting point so that when I use the new flowers that I got (the ones that don't have centres) and the flowers I already have (none of which have centres) I can put a little crystal in the centre and have it look more "finished". Yay.

This here is my embellishment drawer. With all the new embellishments I bought I had to shuffle things around in the drawer. Look how full it is! And it's so great because I spent the whole of Sunday using a lot of the MME embellishments and a few of the bottled flowers on the scrapbook pages I posted previous. I like when I bring new stuff in and then get to use it right away.

I also got to see this on our trip.

And do this. (socks cos I really don't like sand between my toes) I'd been wanting to go to the beach and Mike found a cool tide pool beach for us to visit. We even got to see sea lions. I wish I'd brought my swim suit, because there were people out swimming with them, and it would have been awesome.

02 May, 2012

I *did* manage to finish this card. It's quite small for the amount of work that went into it. I used to think that colouring took a while, until I tried paper piecing. And this is only HALF paper pieced! Her hair and her face I coloured with my Copics and yet it seemed to take forever. I used Princess Anya from The Greeting Farm and the dragon from the Lawn Fawn set Critters Ever After. I made this card with the Christy Thomilson paper from Pink Paislee which, in all honesty, looked better online and I was disappointed with once it arrived. I've only got four sheets though, so that's good, and hopefully I can just slap a few cards like this together and use it up quick. Ah well, take a chance, that's what you get!

This is me wanting to use my Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper. Really, that's all. I wanted to make a layout like this, random and bright, and the Amy Tangerine stuff works really well for it. I used the SMASH tape that is all multicoloured and I thought "I'm probably never going to use this but it's cheap so toss it in your basket" and I've used a bunch of it already. The thing about washi is you're almost sitting there "how much can I use on this project to use it up more?" whereas with paper you go "I want to use this, but not all of it, so I'll just put a dab". It's almost feeing. BUT I can see it getting tiresome because washi comes with a LOT on those little rolls. Anyway, the rest of it was me just embellishing randomly. There's some Queen & Co washi on there, letters from the Simple Stories kit from the last layout, and then bits of the Sketchbook paper cut out to use as embellishments.

Random note: Mike asked me why I'm all of a sudden using just one photo on layouts now and the answer is that I have a lot of random photos that's really just one photo per subject. It's not really a choice, it's just there's nothing else that goes with the photo. The kids especially, one photo usually does the job. And, in all honesty, right now I want to scrapbook and I'm avoiding the big projects like Halloween and our anniversary.

01 May, 2012

I'm using my Simple Stories kits!!! Yeah, okay, so I used a piece of Crate for the background, random sticker embellishments, and I just kind of kept looking at what I had and tried to find places to put them on the page. It's very random, but I like how it came out. It started out with the patterned paper strips and just went from there.

The fun thing about your kids being animals is you can make whatever kind of layouts about them you want. At least, that's my story. I love this MME paper. I love that I bought it at the Expo and I keep using it. Old and new all together. I also used some Prima bits and the new Tim Holtz washi.

I'm 33 years old. I've been married to Mike Reitmeyer for 14 years. I'm a stay-at-home-wife and I have Cystic Fibrosis. We have two fur-kids: Gambit LeBeau (14 yo tabby)and Sirius Lupin my 5yo Pomeranian Service Dog.

All images and creations presented on this blog are property of me, Aeryn Kelly. Any use of them without expressed written permission is prohibited. Please do not submit my work or represent it as your own in any way. All opinions on this site are my own. Any and all links to any outside source are provided without monetary gain; they are for proper citation for the stamp artist and the benefit of the readers of this website. I only promote products and companies that I personally use and believe in. I make no money off of this website.